Without Magic
by jadeesunshine
Summary: Everyone needs a bit of magic in their life. Except perhaps Lily Luna Potter. However that could all change when she meets a Malfoy! (This is a co-written story with misspotter94, so it's bound to be amazing!)
1. Chapter 1

_Before anything, a HAPPY BIRTHDAY should be wished to the amazing speedsONEandONLY for her constant support and love for both of our stories! Thank you for the sunshine :D_

* * *

With music playing softly in her ears through her iPhone, Lily walked into her favourite bookstore in London, smiling to herself as the familiar bell announced another customer. Waving to David, the owner of the store, she quickly immersed herself in the tall bookcases, running her finger across the spines of books. She took a deep breath in, breathing in the scents of her favourite things in the whole world. At random she picked a book up from the shelf and flipped it over, reading the blurb.

Her eyes fell to the word 'magic' and Lily immediately cringed, slamming the book back onto the shelf. Inside herself, her stomach was clenching tightly, making her feel sick. But as she pulled her phone out of her pocket and changed the song, her mood picked up and she continued browsing through the books, not really paying too much attention as she replied to a text from Elle.

All of a sudden, Lily walked directly into what felt like a brick wall and fell to the ground. Her eyes flashed up from her phone and saw that she'd knocked a guy with messy blonde hair over, scattering the books he had been holding across the floor. "Oh my god," she gasped quickly, rushing to help him with his books. "I'm so sorry. I wasn't looking where I was going."

Looking up at his admittedly handsome face, Lily watched as his mouth moved. But she didn't hear anything. As he gave her a soft smile, she pulled her earphones out and looked at him sheepishly. "What did you say? I didn't quite hear you," she apologised, passing him the last of his books and getting to her feet.

"I said it's probably my fault," he repeated, tucking his books under his arm and stretching to his full height, which was a lot taller than Lily. "It's nice to meet you. I'm Scorpius."

He held out a big hand which Lily cautiously shook, worried that from the sheer size of it, it could crush her fragile hand to dust. "I'm Lily," she replied kindly, smiling up at him.

"Would you like to grab a coffee with me?" he quickly asked, immediately biting down on his bottom lip as if he hadn't meant to say it.

The offer came as a surprise for Lily, who screwed her lips up awkwardly in deliberation. But she couldn't see the harm in taking the hot guy up. Besides she didn't have to meet Joelle for another hour at least. "I'd like that," she said warmly, watching with a blushing smile as Scorpius let out an audible bated breath. "Though you should probably pay for those books first. They don't take too kindly to shoplifting," she remarked in a stage whisper.

With a rumbling laugh, Scorpius went over to David and paid for his books. Then he joined Lily at the door and together they left the bookstore, crossing the road to the coffee shop opposite. Lily had spent a lot of time in this particular coffee shop before, sat at the window with a book, happily watching the world walk by.

"Have you been here before?" she asked, as they walked through the door and joined the short queue to the till

"Not really," Scorpius replied, offering Lily a small smile. "I don't tend to come to this part of London."

"Oh," she exclaimed, fiddling with her long red hair. The boy's big grey eyes were intimidating, making Lily completely nervous all the way down to her sweaty palms. "I come here quite a lot." She didn't know why she said it, but even through the sweat and the butterflies, she felt like she could say anything to the mysterious Scorpius.

Casually he leaned against the counter and buried a hand into the pocket of his shorts, exposing an inch of bare skin plus the waistband of his boxers. Lily gulped hard and felt her mouth instantly grow dry. She almost became transfixed by the sight before managing to pull her gaze up to his face, which was looking at her expectantly like he had just asked her a question.

"What did you say?" she asked, licking her lips and blinking hard in order to focus her wandering thoughts.

A smile played on his lips, which oddly made Lily's cheeks grow hot. "What would you like to drink?" he asked again, looking back at the cashier waiting for her to make a decision.

"Sorry," she muttered quietly, feeling the blush burn her cheeks. "Can I just have a large cup of tea please?" she said politely, smiling as the cashier nodded and rang up the bill, which Scorpius insisted on paying for. Then they waited for their drinks to be made before making their way to a small booth tucked away at the back of the café.

With elbows propped up on the table, Scorpius leaned forward and raised his steaming hot mug of coffee to his lips. "Tell me something about you, apart from the fact that you like books," he asked in an almost seductive manner.

For some reason, he made her feel so nervous, which was something Lily wasn't used to feeling. As she shook off her unusual nerves, she reached for the sachets of sugar in the middle of the table. "How did you know I like books?"

"You knew the bookstore owner by name," Scorpius said with a smirk over his mug.

Lily blew out a loud breath and ripped open another sachet, pouring the sugar into her milky tea. "Lucky guess," she joked, uncontrollably smiling as she picked up a stirrer and circled it around in her mug.

"I also know that you like a lot of sugar in your tea," he remarked, his grey eyes flickering down to the empty, ripped open sachets scattered across the table. "Now tell me something I don't know."

The authority in his voice sent shivers down her spine, setting her nerve-endings on fire. "What would you like to know?" she replied coyly, after taking a long breath.

A twinkle emerged in his bright eyes. "Your horoscope?"

"Scorpio," Lily replied quickly.

He laughed a little, taking a sip of his coffee. "Me too."

"Hence the name?" she asked with a raise of her eyebrows.

"Hence the name," he confessed, nodding his head. "Well, kinda!" Leaning back into his chair, he stretched his legs out and ran a hand through his hair, which had Lily biting on her bottom lip. "When's your birthday?"

Rubbing her sore lips together, she tried to pull herself together as she raised her tea to her mouth. "The 2nd of November," she replied quietly, sipping on her drink.

Scorpius nodded slowly, the signs of a grin showing on his face. "Cool."

Lily set her cup down and rested her arms on the table, she crossed them and looked at him carefully. "What about you, Scorpius the Scorpio? When's your birthday?"

He chuckled at the little nickname she had given him. "November fifth. The entire country celebrates my birthday." He winked at her.

Lily rolled her eyes and took another drink of her tea; milky and sweet, just as she always had it. "Hilarious. So, how old are you? You're not going to be like a middle aged guy who has a baby face and gets his kicks from taking young girls out for hot beverages, are you?" Lily challenged him in her usual mocking way.

Scorpius chuckled, his deep laugh even more alluring than his deep rumbling voice. It made Lily want to close her eyes and listen to that sound all day long. She mentally swore at herself, what's with this?! She'd known this guy not even a half hour, he'd bought her a drink and already she wanted to take him to the nearest private room and do him there and then?!

"I'm seventeen." Scorpius' voice brought her back down to earth, away from thoughts of the two of them locked in the disabled toilets just at the back of the shop. "And normally I take girls out for cold beverages, but I couldn't find a shop that sells juices."

Lily let herself laugh at that; so he could give out what he got back. "Well I'm fifteen," she answered his next question without being asked. "Do you go to school around here?"

Scorpius rubbed the back of his neck and took a drink of his coffee before answering her. "Um, not exactly, no. I'm on summer break. I go to a boarding school up north," he said rather vaguely. Those words brought something to Lily's mind with a feeling that she associated with getting slapped in the face; summer break. Her brothers got home from school yesterday! Brilliant!

"Oh, a boarding school brat?" Lily smirked.

"The biggest and baddest," he replied with a wink. "What about you, go to school around here?"

Lily arched an eyebrow at him. "Do you even know any of the schools around here?" She laughed again when Scorpius looked sheepish and shook his head slowly. "Well yeah anyway, I go to St. Theresa's which is just a bus ride away."

Scorpius nodded slowly and checked his watch which reminded Lily that she needed to leave soon if she was going to meet Joelle on time. "Live close by?" he asked her.

"Not far. Just outside of London. Fortunately there's a train station in my little village or else I'd die of boredom!" Lily laughed. "My uncle lives about ten minutes away though." She checked the clock behind Scorpius and sighed deeply.

"Somewhere to be?" Scorpius teased.

Lily drained her tea and pulled the small stack of napkins towards her. "Yeah, you too judging by you checking your watch every few minutes," she teased back, sending him a light wink.

She grabbed a pen from her bag at her feet and quickly scribbled down her mobile number and her home phone number; her family hardly ever used that phone so when it rang they always left it for Lily to answer since it would most likely be one of her friends.

Pushing the napkin back to Scorpius who looked at with raised eyebrows, she stood from her chair and shouldered her bag. "I've got to go meet my friend," she said as she went to stand next to him. "Call me and we'll do this again." Then without hesitating, Lily bent down over his chair and pressed her lips against his. She felt his surprise as their lips met but it didn't take long for him to kiss her back. When she felt his hand on her arm, she pulled away and smirked down at him.

"See you around, Scorpius the Scorpio."

###

"Where did you disappear to last night?" Lily exclaimed, linking arms with her best friend and pulling her into their favourite fast food restaurant – McDonalds. They filed into the queue and looked up at the menu even though both of them knew what they would order. "A McNuggets share-box, large fries and a large strawberry milkshake too," she added to the greasy boy behind the counter, rummaging around in her bag for her purse. It was her turn to pay.

Fixing her high ponytail, Joelle leaned against the counter opposite Lily. "You know Isabelle's brother, the one who lives in Spain?"

Joelle Dembury was her best friend, ever since Lily started school in year three and saw Joelle being picked on by the year four bully. Instead of standing around like the rest of the school, Lily walked up to the bully and punched him in square in the face, knocking out one of his baby teeth in the process. Turns out, Joelle likes people that almost get expelled for her. They'd been the best of friends (and badass partners in crime) from that day on.

She was devastatingly gorgeous with sun-kissed skin, long flowing dark hair and gold twinkling lights for eyes. Standing a little bit taller than Lily, she had all the boys pining after her, all the boys that didn't have eyes for Lily. But it was wasted – on the pair of them – because all Joelle really wanted was fun.

"Aaron Cooke?" Lily questioned, dropping her purse into her bag. At Joelle's nod, she frowned hard. "What about him?"

On cue, their food arrived and Joelle took the tray, heading up the stairs. It was pretty busy, with the tail end of the lunchtime rush still lingering around. They managed to find a spot at one of the tall tables that faced the windows overlooking the hectic high street below.

"Ah, ah, ah!" Lily exclaimed, dragging the tray away from her best friend while she hopped up onto the tall stool. "No fries until you tell me what happened with Aaron!"

Blowing out a loud breath, Joelle puckered her lips from side to side. "Let's just say he loves being on the bottom," she said teasingly, reaching over to steal a fry from the tray before Lily could object. "Oh and he definitely knows how to use his hands," she added with a wink.

Lily slid the tray back in between them with a resigned sigh and a roll of her eyes. "He's like four years older than us – which is something you like in a man," she said, answering herself.

"You know how I like them to have experience," Joelle replied coyly.

Sipping on the milkshake, Lily raised her eyebrows and swallowed the cold drink. "But it's Isabelle's brother! She's going to go crazy when she finds out!"

"That's because she needs to get laid more often!" Her best friend took the milkshake from Lily's grip and slipped the straw past her lips. "Speaking of getting laid, did Finn finally entice you into a bed last night?"

At that, Lily burst out laughing. "Are you kidding me? He tried but I'm neither lonely nor desperate!" Plucking a fry off the tray, she grinned brightly and nudged Joelle in the ribs. "Besides I met someone else today," she added as her smile quickly turned into a smirk.

"No fucking way! Little Miss Picky finally found someone that satisfies her?" she asked with a cheeky raise of her eyebrows.

Lily rolled her eyes and pulled the tray towards her before her best friend shovelled all of the food into her mouth. "Just because I have standards," she mocked with a raise of her eyebrows, knowing that the pair of them were both thinking about the time Joelle slept with Harvey Mapps from the year below because she hadn't had sex in two weeks.

"That was one time Lily Potter!" Joelle exclaimed loudly, her voice moving up in pitch. "Besides, I bumped into Harvey the other day and he's filled out a bit." Slowly she took another sip of the milkshake and simply looked at Lily. "Now tell me about this guy who made you drop your panties."

"I didn't drop my panties for him," she replied shocked. Admittedly though, she had been thinking about it when she was with Scorpius - God, he was gorgeous! "I met him in David's and he offered to buy me a cup of tea."

"All it takes is a cup of tea?" Joelle leaned back and crossed her arms. "And people say I'm easy!"

Lily ran a hand through her hair and twisted a strand around her finger. "Hush you! I'm telling you about Scorpius!"

"Oh he has a name!" Joelle murmured, suddenly interested as she leaned in closer. "A very odd name but a name nevertheless."

A smile quickly found its way onto Lily's lips. "It's to do with his horoscope, which by the way is the same as mine." She watched as Joelle smiled back at her. "He's got blonde hair, beautiful grey eyes and an amazing body that makes me want to rub oil all over it."

Joelle's laughter echoed around the restaurant. "Oh you so want to bang him!" she teased, giggling as she stuffed some fries into her mouth. "Where does he live? Where does he go to school? How old is he? I want details sugar!"

Taking a deep breath, Lily rolled her eyes and sat up straighter on her stool. "I don't know exactly where he lives but I think it's pretty close to London. He goes to a boarding school up north. He's seventeen and by all that is right in the world, he is gorgeous. I mean he literally had me dribbling."

"Did you honestly dribble in front of him?" Joelle asked, disgusted.

Lily shoved her best friend on the shoulder. "Of course not, Elle," she exclaimed, stealing the last chicken nugget before she could. "I did go off on some daydreams though."

"Are you going to see him again?" Joelle asked, leaning forward on her elbows.

Biting her lip, Lily nodded cheekily.

"You have to bring him to one of the parties," Joelle cried, as if a light bulb had just flashed on above her head. "That way, we can all meet him."

"And scare him off?" Lily frowned, swinging slightly on her stool. "Besides he has to call me first!"

Joelle finished the last fry and hopped off of the stool, flicking her hair over her shoulder and grabbing her bag and the milkshake. "Oh he will," she said with a smirk on her face, as Lily collected her things and hopped off her own stool. "Now let's go do some shopping!"

###

It was with a hearty sigh that Lily got off her train; she knew that her mother would no doubt yell at her. She wanted Lily to be home when James and Albus got home from that school of theirs. She wanted Lily to be present during the meal she would have spent all day preparing. After all, it wasn't every year that James graduated from school.

Her parents didn't live far from the train station. Close enough that Lily didn't have to walk far to get there on a morning for school but far away enough that the noises the trains made couldn't be heard from her house. She loved her house; it was huge and she practically had her own floor. Her dad gave her a bedroom of her own when they moved here when she was six years old. A bedroom of her own and the biggest room in the house; albeit the attic was the room farthest away and it had a steep staircase of its own but at least it was bigger than the boys' and it had lots of space for her mass of clothes and belongings. Her bedroom and bathroom were on the top floor of the house, then on the floor below her were the other bedrooms. James and Albus' had a shared bathroom attached to their rooms. Her parents had their own private bathroom attached to their room. Lily didn't see the point in having private bathrooms, a bathroom in general and a toilet on the ground floor; it just meant her mum had a lot of toilets to clean. As well as the three bedrooms for her family, there was also a guest room that used to belong to Teddy before he moved out.

When she reached her house, just under a mile away from the actual village, Lily froze; outside her house was her Uncle Ron's car. She could hear the voices of her cousins from the garden round the back of the house. Lily rolled her eyes and opened the gate. Apparently the big welcome home meal for the cousins coming back from that school was being held at her house, again.

Lily opened the front door and scowled at the amount of voices she heard. "Mum? Dad? I'm home!" she yelled out, taking her jacket off and hanging it up on the coat stand. She scowled heavy at the couple of cloaks she saw on there.

"Lily!"

Rolling her eyes again, she picked her bag up and followed her mother's yell into the kitchen; every single one of her uncles and aunts were dotted around the kitchen. Her grandparents were here too. Even Victoire had taken time away from that hospital she worked in.

"Hey Grandma. Hi Grandpa!" Lily headed over to her grandparents and gave them a kiss on the cheek each, hugging her granddad too.

"We told you to come home from school yesterday!" Ginny scolded without looking away from the oven. "We wanted to spend the evening as a family! Your father, me, you and -"

"Dumb and dumber. I know Mum, I'm sorry," Lily muttered as she opened the door to the small utility room that housed the laundry equipment. "I got ink on my tie again by the way. My pen exploded," she explained, picking her school uniform out of her bag and showing her tie to her father.

"I think next term we'll get you a different type of pen." Harry said, taking the tie from Lily and holding the stain up to the light.

Lily closed the doors, not really caring what type of pen she used in school. She looked at her mother, waiting for her to explode. "Never mind her tie or her pen! Harry, she skipped out on dinner and didn't come home last night! All we got was a message on the answering machine!" Ginny yelled, storming over to where there was a phone with an answering machine in the kitchen.

_"Mum, dad I'll be home tomorrow around five ish. I think. Or maybe later. I'm staying at Uncle Dud's tonight, 'kay? See ya."_ Lily's message was played for all her older relatives to hear. Most of them were looking at the answering machine like it was a piece of treasure. Her aunts all looked disappointed.

"I could have just stayed and not told you," Lily shrugged. She moved over to the large silver fridge and helped herself to a bottle of water. "I'm going to go change; I had to sit next to a smelly old woman on the train from London and I can still smell her," she said, walking over to the doorway.

"Dominique is in your room, she spilled something down her dress so she's borrowing something to wear!" Ginny called after her daughter.

Lily sighed loudly, showing her irritation that once again her mother lets her cousins roam all over her house and mess with Lily's belongings. Last year when it was raining, Louis and Roxanne had messed up her CD collection; it took her almost four hours to put it back in order. She still got annoyed when she remembered they put an Oasis album next to a Nirvana collection.

As she walked up the stairs and through the long hallway that led to her staircase Lily noticed that one of her brothers seemed to be in their rooms. Judging from the stench of sweat she could taste in the air, it was clearly Albus. Ever since he came home three years ago with a new found likeness of working out and getting fit, he had an almost permanent stink of sweat. Lily guessed that it was the price to pay when you worked out nearly every single day.

"Hey kiddo, come in here a sec."

Lily rolled her eyes and turned on her heel to go into Albus' bedroom; she hadn't been in here since last year and it had hardly changed. Albus liked sport, all sport. He was probably the brother she was closest to, and that was putting it very mildly. Lily only preferred him because he wasn't at all bothered about magic. As long as Albus was doing sport, any sport, he was happy.

"What?" Lily gagged and immediately went over to the window and pushed it open as far as she could. The entire room stank of sweat. She looked around and saw the cause - a cauldron full of what looked like a year's supply of sweaty socks.

The layout of Albus' room hadn't really changed from when he was a kid and they lived in Grimmauld Place. His bed had gone from a single to a large king size, the books on the shelves had been boxed up and shoved in his closet and replaced with books on fitness and health. In the corners of the room was a set of dumbbells, stacked up high. Posters of music and Quidditch stars had been changed for more modern stars and along with Muggle footballers that Lily was very familiar with.

"Where were you last night? Mum was annoyed and took it out on me," he asked her, peeling his sweaty top off and tossing it in the already overflowing washing basket.

Lily headed for the door, instantly bored of the conversation and of her brother. "I was out. Sorry for not being here with the banners out for dumb and dumber to come home." She didn't bother waiting for Albus' reply, she just headed out into the hallway and up her staircase.

Her bedroom, as always, was a mess. Mounds of clothes and just stuff was everywhere; on the far wall was the only two things in the room that had any organisation, her two bookshelves. One held dozens and dozens of books and the other held hundreds of CD's; the two things that Lily loved most in the world, books and music.

Lily dropped her bag on her large double bed that was never made and looked around for Dominique who was supposedly in here stealing some of her clothes. "Where the hell are you?!" Lily called out, walking over clothes and school books to reach the large window.

She pulled the blind up, lighting the entire room in natural sunlight; the walls were covered with posters of every movie that she had seen and every band or artist that Lily liked. Every single author or artist or band in this room was Muggle. No magic connections ever. Lily's bedroom was definitely the most Muggle in the entire house; it had a telephone, endless Muggle appliances such as curling tongs, hair straighteners, hair dryer - she even had her own television and laptop up here.

"Bathroom," came a lazy reply.

Lily followed Dominique voice and headed over to the bathroom, swinging the door open to reveal her cousin standing in front of the large mirror; a stained pale pink dress at her feet. Dominique was wearing a pair of Lily's pink denim shorts and a pale blue button up sleeveless blouse.

"I want those back," Lily told her cousin in all seriousness.

Out of all her cousins Lily liked Dominique the most - except perhaps Hugo. Dominique wasn't really close with the family either and it was because she was different from them too. Not different like Lily, but different in a more personal way. Dominique was a lesbian and had been out and open regarding her sexuality since she was fifteen and from what Lily heard from Hugo and her parents - Dominique didn't care who saw as she snogged girls in front of the entire school. That's what Lily liked about her older cousin – she didn't give a shit about what other people thought.

"You will." Dominique straightened the shirt before deciding it looked better when she tied the two sides together, revealing her flat stomach and her abs.

"You're going to give your mother a heart attack looking like that," Lily observed, hopping up onto the counter and swinging her legs around. Absentmindedly she picked her tinted lip balm up from her oversized make-up bag and ran it across her lips.

Dominique slipped her feet back into her strappy gladiator sandals. "That's the idea!" Dominique said with a wink at Lily, plucking the lip balm out of Lily's grip and rubbing her lips together. "Oh vanilla!" she exclaimed, throwing it back at Lily and then strutting out of her bathroom.

Exhaling loudly, Lily jumped off of the counter, picking up her cousin's stained dress and walking to the top of her stairs. "You forgot your damn dress!" she shouted, throwing it to the bottom of the stairs with a subtle but satisfying thud. Then she spun back into her room and slammed the door behind her.

It took her a while, seeing as there was a lot of mess in her room but eventually she found her iPhone and opened up her conversation with Oliver. _'The family are driving me insane already and I've only been in the house for five minutes.'_ Falling back onto her bed, she rolled over and opened her laptop up, waiting for it to warm up.

As she waited and twiddled a strand of her hair, she blew out a long breath as the noise from the floors below rose up. Lily could think of a hundred things she would rather be doing right now rather than spending time with a bunch of weirdoes. Just as Lily was about to open up Facebook, planning on reading the message she was sure Finn had most likely sent her about a party he was most likely having, her mother's booming voice echoed up the stairs.

"DINNER'S READY!"

Sighing to herself, Lily reached for her phone and rolled off of the bed, taking as much time as possible to make it through the mess of her bedroom. She really didn't want to go to dinner. As she made her way down her stairs, she peeked at her phone, reading the reply from Oliver. _'Snap their wands and come get drunk with me! Party at Finn's tonight!' _

Lily walked into the kitchen and tried to smile at her dad, who was using his wand to carry four dishes full of roasted vegetables. "We're having dinner outside on the patio!" he said, ducking out through the door.

With a resigned sigh, she reluctantly followed, bombarded by everyone in her family to calling out 'hello' to her. Quickly she spotted a space next to Hugo and sat down, muttering a hello back and then pulling her phone out to text Oliver back.

'_Such a tempting offer ;)' _

"Lily please put your phone away. We are trying to have a lovely meal to congratulate James, Fred and Molly on graduating Hogwarts!" Ginny scolded from the other end of the table.

Lily put her phone down beside her and bit her tongue; she wanted to reply with a sarcastic comment about how she couldn't give a damn if her oldest brother and cousins had graduated or not.

"So, who wants to start then? How was your year?" Arthur asked as people began passing down plates of food up and down both sides of the table. Lily accepted a plate from Hugo and was just about to put something on her plate when her aunt called down the table.

"Oh no Lily, that is Hippogriff meat!" Angelina stopped Lily from putting a magical substance on her plate; Lily shoved the tray to Charlie who was sitting on her other side. If a Muggle or a Squib eats magical substances or consumes them they become ill. Lily found that out the hard way when she was seven and Teddy babysat her. He gave her a potion for a fever and she ended up having to go to St. Mungo's for it to be flushed out of her system.

"The food you can eat is all in white dishes darling," Ginny said from her spot further up the table.

Lily nodded and ignored the looks her cousins were giving her; they always stared and it always pissed her off.

When three white dishes were passed down her way, she just put a spoonful of each on her plate, not at all hungry any more.

"Well, I for one had a brilliant year," Molly, the most stuck up of her cousins, spoke first. "I know for sure that I got an 'Outstanding' on my Potion N.E.W.T, as for Charms on the other hand I think I managed to scrape an 'Exceeds Expectations -."

"Well thank God for that, how else would we manage if Molly didn't ace an exam," Lily muttered a bit too loudly. She pushed her plate away from her and picked her phone back up.

_'Cousins are making me want to commit. Party at Finn's is sounding like heaven.'_ She quickly tapped out a message to Oliver.

"Lily, phone _down_," Harry scolded his daughter.

"James, Fred, how do you think you did on your exams?" Bill asked.

Lily zoned out of the conversation at that; she neither cared nor wanted to know how her brother did in his exams, James would get perfect results anyway, no matter what subject. And even Lily knew that Freddie was going to work with George in that shop of theirs.

Instead of participating in the conversation, Lily just played with the food on her plate. She made a face out of her salad, using grated carrot pieces to form a frown.

"Lily? Your aunt is speaking to you!"

Lily looked up when her mother's voice became a yell and Hugo kicked her lightly under the table.

"What?"

Hermione laughed lightly but repeated her question. "I said, are you nervous for year eleven? You have your G.C.S.E.'s next year? Have you decided on what you want to do afterwards?" her aunt asked; being the only Muggleborn member of the family, Lily was closest to her aunt. If she had any problems she could go to her and she'd help her sort them out. Plus Hermione always included Lily in a conversation by turning it Muggle whenever possible.

Lily looked around and saw every member of the family was looking at her; most of them looked confused but they were all waiting for her answer.

"Oh, um, well I've already sat a couple of exams. Early entry for Maths and English Literature so . . . no, not really." She shrugged lightly. "But, well I'm good with books and English and stuff so I figured I'd just go to Sixth Form and study that. Maybe university. I'm not sure yet."

The cousins seemed even more confused with what she had just said but the aunts and uncles at least pretended to be interested.

"What about job wise in the future? Maybe you could join the department in the Ministry that helps pure-blooded families cope with having a Squib -," Percy suggested.

Lily just scoffed and rolled her eyes while trying not to laugh. Ginny, Harry, James and Albus all looked at each other, those four knowing full well what her attitude to their world was.

"Are you having a laugh? I wouldn't work with those people if they paid me a million a month!" she said seriously. "Why would I want to be a part of that world when they don't want me?" she mocked, looking back down at her plate.

She felt the atmosphere around the table turn awkward; Lily being a Squib was always a touchy subject. It had been ever since she was five and they found out. Nobody really knew how to talk about it so they didn't.

Ever.

"I have homework to do and a party to get ready for, I'm going upstairs." Lily grabbed her phone and stood up from the table.

"Lily, we're family, sit -,"

"And listen to these harp on about Potions and goblins and spells? Listen to them talk about shit I have no idea about?" She pointed to her cousins and shook her head. "I'd really rather not." She turned away from the table and sent a message to Finn, telling him she would go to his party if he drove to her house to pick her up, when she felt it flying out of her hand. She looked down to see if she dropped it on the floor but when it wasn't there she looked up. She heard a thud and a bang and whirled round and glared at the middle of the table.

Her phone lay in between a bowl of salad and a bowl of vegetables, smoking lightly. Glass was sprinkled around the table like glitter and she could see bits of memory chips dotted around the table.

James was standing with his wand out, looking a bit shocked.

"What did you do?!" Lily screeched, glaring at her oldest brother.

James looked from the phone to Lily and rolled his eyes. "I can fix it, stop sulking." He pointed his wand at the phone and waved it. The silent spell didn't do anything positive to the phone. If anything, it made it worse, leaving it fizzing and sending up the odd spark.

"My phone!" Lily shouted. "You . . . you broke me phone! It's gone!"

Her brother just rolled his eyes again and sat back in his chair. "Don't cry, you'll no doubt get a new one by tomorrow," he pointed out, blatantly suggesting that Lily usually got whatever she asked for from her parents. If not them, she could normally get her uncle Dudley to buy her something.

"That is not the point you arsehole!" Lily screeched, ignoring her mother's yell at her bad language. "I had photos, videos, emails, songs - loads of important stuff on there! Numbers and texts and it's all gone! You've just erased three years of my life!" She felt her hands shake with rage and her breath was coming out in short, angry pants. Before she knew what she was doing, she had grabbed her untouched plate of food and flung it full force at her brother, hitting him square in the face.

_"Lily Luna Potter!"_

She ignored her mother's voice and the laughter of her cousins, simply storming through the doors leading to the kitchen and sprinting to her bedroom.

Once inside her room she did what she knew would annoy her family the most - even more so since her bedroom window was directly above the patio. She turned her C.D. player up to the fullest volume and put on a song that portrayed her feelings exactly.

_"Your eyes, your eyes . . . you make me wanna die!"_

The screaming singing of one of Lily's favourite Muggle bands, _The Pretty Reckless, _came out so loud that she could practically feel her room shaking. Lily went over to her bedroom window and opened it to its fullest - deafening her family with her Muggle music.

It was nothing more than they deserved for making her feel like such an outcast.

* * *

_Authors' Note:_

_Both misspotter94 and I hope you've enjoyed the first chapter for Without Magic. For me, it's the first story I've co-written and it's a different but fun experience. We're both obsessed with these characters and cannot wait to write more and go into more detail about Lily the Squib._

_Make sure to hit the review button to tell us what you think._


	2. Chapter 2

Voices. Voices calling all through the house woke Lily up. For some reason she had decided to open her window when she got home last night and that let whoever was shouting in her garden to wake her up.

"Shut up, shut up, shut up!" Lily groaned, grabbing a pillow and covering her face with it. She felt terrible already; her head was pounding, her mouth was dry, her throat was sore, her legs were aching from the heels and dancing and she knew that she smelled too. How many drinks did she have last night? She groped on the floor for her phone to see whatever morning greeting she got from Finn read and then she remembered James broke her phone - which was why she went to the party and got extra hammered.

"I need tea. And headache tablets," she moaned and very carefully put her feet on the floor. Sometimes after she drinks, moving around the morning after has proven to be a bit dangerous. Last time she simply walked down the stairs too quickly and threw up all over her mother's freshly painted wall.

Lily took several deep breaths as she stood up, her head and her stomach getting used to the new found height. When she walked closer to her door, she saw that her laptop was flashing a bright red colour. Frowning, she moved slowly over to it. She didn't remember turning it on last night - or rather this morning, when she came home.

At the click of a random button, her Facebook page opened up for her. A stream of updates from all of her friends from ten hours ago made her smile slightly. She laughed and cringed a little when she saw that Megan Dursley, Oliver's cool older sister, uploaded a photo of her and Lily mid-shot.

_"My head hurts . . . I hate the world!"_ Lily mouthed out the message that Joelle sent her with a series of little faces following; the most realistic one was probably the little green face with vomit coming out of its mouth.

She quickly tapped out a message to her best friend, telling her that she hated the world too and then closed her laptop. She desperately needed tea with lots of milk and lots of sugar. She very slowly and very carefully made her way down to the kitchen. She glanced at the clock on the kitchen wall and was quite surprised when she saw that it was already almost one in the afternoon.

Albus and James were both sitting at the table; the shouting from outside seemed to be her parents, arguing over how to light a barbeque.

"You look awful," James noted, looking up from the paper in front of him.

Lily just ignored him and went over to the kettle. She pulled out her favourite mug, poured nearly half a cup of milk in, adding a tea bag and then four spoonfuls of sugar.

"You're going to make yourself sick," James muttered, observing his little sister carefully.

"If I do, I'll be sure to throw up on you," Lily retorted. "Where's my phone?" she asked as she turned around and looked from her oldest brother to her older brother. Both of them looked like their dad, Albus more so considering he had their dad's eyes. James had their mother's eyes, like Lily did. Brown, chocolate brown eyes. The differences between her brothers was obvious though, James was thin and tall and Albus was stocky and average height. James preferred books, Albus preferred working out. Both boys needed to wear glasses, but Lily hadn't seen Albus wear his for about three years now.

"What?" James scowled as Albus laughed behind his pile of fruit.

"You broke my phone so you can replace it," Lily told him seriously. When she heard the click of the kettle she turned back around and poured the hot water into the cup. "If you go into London, you'll make the shop before it closes," she said as she squeezed the tea out of the bag and then tossed it in the direction of the bin. It of course went in, Lily had perfect aim - she played for her school's netball team from year seven right up until Christmas of her current year when she got bored of it. Instead she played football.

She picked her cup up and turned round to see that both of her brothers were looking at her with shock on their faces.

"How am I meant to know what phone to get you? Or where to go?!" James spluttered out.

"Whoa, that was a good shot!" Albus complemented her.

Lily simply took a sip of the hot tea, feeling a little bit relieved when she didn't want to throw it back up as soon as she swallowed it. "James, you're supposedly smart. Figure it out. I want a new phone by the end of today." She walked out of the kitchen, ignoring James' voice and Albus' laughter.

Just as she walked through the hallway, the house phone rang loudly. Racing back into the kitchen before one of her idiot brothers grabbed the phone for a joke, Lily picked it from the hub and pressed the green button. "Hello?"

"I have found the best hangover cure in the world!" It was Joelle, being her usually loud self, something Lily didn't want to deal with until she could see the bottom of her cup of tea. "It's Sprite! Who fucking knew?"

Sighing painfully, she winced and walked out of the kitchen, away from potential eavesdroppers and headed into the living room, curling up into a ball in her favourite spot. "Inside voice please Elle!" she exclaimed, closing her eyes and bringing her tea to her lips.

"Apologies darling," she replied mockingly in a posh voice she liked to adopt every now and then. "Now how did the parents react when you got back last night?" she asked in her normal soft and seductive voice (it was just naturally seductive).

"I haven't seen them yet," she answered in a resigned voice. Facing facts, she had accepted her fate and probably her grounding too. "All I know is that I have a fucking killer of a headache, probably because of those shots me and Megan did."

Joelle's chiming laugh sounded through the phone. "You were definitely on a mission to get pissed last night. Did Finn managed to find you in the end?"

"I think I hid in the cupboard under the stairs to get away from him," Lily admitted, her face screwing up in concentration as she tried to think back to the events of last night. She took a massive gulp of tea and settled deeper into the sofa. "Did you bump into Isabelle last night?"

"Oh yeah," she replied unenthusiastically. "Apparently she's not very happy with me. She tried to start a fight but Aaron dragged her way before she did something stupid and embarrassed herself. Although Aaron did tell me to call him just before he took Isabelle home."

"Dun, dun, dunnn!" Lily mocked, sipping on her tea. "Are you going to call?"

There was a slight pause. "Only if someone better doesn't come along," Joelle replied seductively, setting the pair of them off into fits of laughter.

In the background, Lily could hear muffled noise. "Dad get out of my room!" Joelle squealed and then the line went dead. Looking down at the phone, she rolled her eyes. Her best friend could be so clumsy sometimes, Joelle probably just dropped the phone.

As Lily reached for the TV remote, the house phone rang again. Lazily, she picked the phone back up and pressed the green button. "You are such a klutz!" she giggled down the phone. "Let me guess, you dropped your phone?"

"Hello?" a deep voice replied, a voice that certainly wasn't Joelle's. "Is this Lily?"

"Oh my god," Lily gasped, recognising the voice. Instantly a blush burned her cheeks and she wished the ground would swallow her up. "Hi Scorpius," she murmured awkwardly, placing her tea down on a nearby table and then smacking her palm onto her forehead, which didn't help her headache. "How are you?" she asked.

His deep laugh sounded and Lily felt her cheeks burn hotter. "I'm good thank you, although you sound a bit rough this morning," he joked, and Lily felt a bit lightheaded. Sweet baby Jesus, his voice sounded sexy through the phone, all deep and sensuous. "What are you doing tomorrow?"

"Well it's Monday, so I have to go to school," Lily answered, wishing she could have finished school for the summer like him.

"What about after school?" he asked quickly. "I thought I could show you my favourite spot in London and then we could go out for dinner?"

Inside, Lily's heart started thumping hard, butterflies erupting in her stomach. "That sounds fun!" she replied as calmly as possible, when inside all she wanted to do was do her goal celebration and slide across the floor on her knees. "What time tomorrow?"

"I was thinking 5 o'clock outside the book store?"

Lily pinched her lips together to stop herself from squealing and rolling around across the floor like she was thirteen. "I guess I'll see you there!" she replied after taking a deep breath in.

"Perfect," Scorpius said simply. "I've got to go and help my mum with my washing from school but I'll see you tomorrow!"

"Until next time Scorpio," she added in a small attempt at being cheeky. She smiled as his deep, rumbling laugh died out and he hung up. After the phone went dead, all Lily wanted to do was scream in disbelief.

All of a sudden, the phone began ringing again in her hands, scaring the living daylights out of Lily. Pressing the green button once more, she held the phone to her ear, waiting for whoever it was to speak first so she didn't embarrass herself like she did with Scorpius. What if it was him again?

"Sorry about that," Joelle's voice said. "I dropped my phone. What were we talking about?"

"The party," Lily replied as a side thought. "But you are never going to believe what just happened to me!" After a dramatic pause, which was occupied by her grinning like a Cheshire cat. "Scorpius just asked me out of a date!"

###

Lily sighed in content when she stepped out of the shower; after a dozen cups of tea, pigging out on a dozen cheeseburgers for breakfast/lunch that her father made on the barbeque and sitting in front of the television all day, a hot shower was the last thing needed to rid her of her hangover. Now all she needed to do was get dressed and then lounge about on the sofa for the rest of the night.

She didn't bother drying her hair; she simply plaited it and would let it dry naturally over night. Lily pulled on a pair of shorts and a vest top, grabbed a book and her glasses and then headed downstairs.

Her parents were doing their normal Sunday night routine, but this time Albus was joining their father with watching a game of football. Lily rolled her eyes as she curled up in her usual spot on the sofa; Albus was asking endless questions to their dad who was replying patiently every time.

"What are you doing?" Lily asked suddenly; she looked over at her mother was standing and ironing what Lily guessed to be a school year's amount of clothes from her brothers.

"Ironing. Your uniform is hanging up in the kitchen." Ginny answered, folding up a t-shirt as she did.

Lily raised an eyebrow at the sight of the actual iron in her mother's hand; normally Ginny charmed and observed as the iron flattened the clothes but tonight . . . she was actually using it.

"Whatever." If her mother wanted to use less magic around the house, then Lily wouldn't complain.

Pulling on her glasses, she opened the book at the page she was at on the train yesterday. She soon became enthralled in the story about two teenagers who managed to find love even though they had both been diagnosed with terminal cancer. She was wiping her eyes discreetly to hide her tears when the front door slammed shut.

"Is she down here?"

Lily closed the book just as James came stomping into the room, Dominique following him with an amused grin on her face. When her brother saw Lily looking at him he tossed something at her. She caught the plastic bag easily and opened it to see a box in there, holding her brand new iPhone.

"Are they always so expensive?!" James fumed, throwing himself down into an armchair, glaring at Lily as he did. "That's wiped my summer funds out!"

Lily just waved her hand in his direction, not really caring for his complaints; she had a new phone! And an even better one than the one he broke!

"Shouldn't have broken her other one." Dominique smirked and sat down next to Lily.

Lily grinned smugly in James' direction and headed out of the room. She made it halfway up the stairs before she remembered her book. Turning back, she headed down the stairs and down the hallway but stopped when she heard voices.

"Why are you doing it the Muggle way?" James asked their mother.

"Because, we need to learn to do things for ourselves." Ginny said slowly. Lily frowned when she heard the volume of the television turn right down.

"Why? We're both adults now, we can use magic whenever –"

Harry interrupted James. "Well . . . there's a new house rule boys."

Lily rolled her eyes but stepped forwards so that her parents would know they don't need to tell her it. "No wands or magic in the house while Lily is home." She stopped when she heard the rule though.

_No_ magic? At all? While she was in the house nobody would be allowed to use any magic?

"Why not?"

"Because this is her home and she needs to be comfortable and happy here!" Lily was surprised when she heard her father snap; he was normally the cool parent, the one she could wrap around her little finger with one innocent look and a smile.

"This is our home too –," Albus started but their mother stopped him.

"Yes, we know this is your home but we have made a decision. We aren't going to use magic while she's in the house either," Ginny sighed deeply. "Anyway, she's got school for another month and then she is hardly ever here for the summer holidays anyway. Chances are she'll be in the house a couple of times a week," her mother reassured her brothers.

Lily didn't say anything, she just silently tiptoed away from the doorway and then ran up the stairs all the way to her room. There she grabbed her cordless house phone from the hub on her vanity and dialled the number to her uncle's house.

###

Trying not to stress out, Lily rested the phone between her ear and her shoulder as she tried to balance her school bag and a small overnight bag in one hand and tried to fasten her tie with her other hand. As well as walk down the stairs without tripping; the last thing she needed was to have a black eye on her first date with Scorpius.

She was momentarily surprised when she saw her entire family around the kitchen; normally both of her brothers surfaced from their rooms just after lunch time like she did during the school holidays. Albus was chopping fruit and giving the blender a funny glance while James was sitting in a smart shirt and tie, looking at the paper.

"_Hello?"_

Lily sighed at Joelle's slow and grouchy voice; definitely not a morning person.

"What do I wear?!" Lily dropped both bags into an empty chair and hurried over to the kettle, ignoring her father wondering loudly who she could possibly be wanting to speak to at seven in the morning. "I've got a couple of outfits and I'll bring them into school. Also I'm bringing a spare uniform that you can hide in your dance locker." She ignored Elle's threats of violence because of being woken up an hour before she had to be up and simply got a mug from out of the cupboard.

"_Good morning to you too," _Joelle sighed irritably down the phone. Lily waited for the kettle to boil and watched as Albus gingerly placed his fruit pieces into the blender one by one. The look on his face made her think he was scared the blades would chop his fingers off.

"Yeah yeah, morning. Now what do I wear?" she muttered, moving Albus out of the way and pouring the bowl of fruit into the blender. She added the yoghurt and then turned it on, taking his hand and putting it on top of the jug.

"A bra and no panties. Wait, this isn't your number. Whose phone are you calling me on?" the sound of running water could be heard in the background, making Lily wonder what she was doing.

"That's something you would wear, not me and James broke my phone so he got me a new one." She poured her tea and went to sit at the table. "Elle, what am I going to wear?" She ignored the curious and frustrated looks her mother, father and James were giving her and swiped the last piece of toast from the rack.

"Ooh your brothers are back? Is Albus still fit?" Elle giggled.

Lily sighed and shook her head. "How do I know? I can't exactly judge if Albus is attractive or not can I? Look, do whatever you're doing. We can skive History and decide what I can wear then." She hung the phone up and placed it in her breast pocket. As she took a drink of her tea, she noticed that everybody around the table was staring at her, her mother with a raised eyebrow, James with a slight glare and her father with laughter in his eyes. Albus turned and grinned at her from his spot by the blender.

"What?" she exclaimed, immediately regretting that she asked.

"You are _not_ skipping History, young lady."

"What do you need fashion advice for?"

"I didn't _break_ your phone – I just didn't know it didn't respond well to magic!"

"Was that Joelle? The hot dancer?"

Lily ignored all of those questions and focused on drinking her tea and eating her toast in silence. The rest of breakfast passed quietly, with Albus announcing halfway through that he was going on his run and would see everybody later. He bid farewell to Lily with a _"have a nice day at school, squirt._" She responded by throwing her toast crust at him, which he caught in his mouth. James left shortly after, their parents wishing him luck on his first day of working as an intern with Aunt Hermione. Her mother also had to go to work, saying she needed to be in the office for a meeting with the owner of the newspaper.

"I'll drive you to school today Lily-Pad," Harry called out when Lily shouldered her backpack and picked up her overnight bag and headed for the door.

She turned with her earphones in her hand, ready to put them in her ears and looked at her father curiously. "Erm, why?"

Her dad chuckled and grabbed his car keys from the key holder close to the kitchen door. He took the overnight bag from her and held the back door open. "Because you're my daughter and I don't have to be in work for another three hours so I may as well save you the train fare."

Lily shrugged lightly but followed her dad to the car. She hopped into the front seat, put her feet up on the dashboard and turned on her favourite radio station. Normally Lily got the train into London and then a bus to her school. However before she turned thirteen and managed to convince her parents she was old enough to do the journey herself, her father would drive her into the city and drop her off at the bus stop. Occasionally Uncle Ron or Aunt Hermione would drive her into the city. Lily liked those days because she could always convince them to buy her an early morning treat from the bakery.

"Must you listen to this awful music?" Harry crinkled his nose as a particular song came on the station that made her tap her feet against the dashboard to the rhythm of the beat.

"You insisted on driving me to school so I insist on listening to the music," Lily teased her father. "They are the terms Daddio." She used the nickname that she had used on him since she could remember.

Lily was a lot closer to her father than her mother. She knew it was because he understood her more. Harry had grown up in a house full of people who didn't really understand him too. They had both grown up different to their families. They both know what it is like to be on the outside looking in.

"I insisted on driving you to school because I want to talk to you; without you being able to storm off in a huff," Harry said as they drove past the village by their house.

"What did you want to lecture me on?" Lily put the window down and let the summer air cool her face down a little. "If it's about Saturday night then I _am_ sorry. I didn't mean to get so . . . well drunk. I –"

"It's not that. But remind me to yell at you for that tonight," he said and from the corner of her eye, Lily could see him smirk as he pulled out at a junction, looking on his right for oncoming traffic. As he moved out, he started to speeding up since they were now on the motorway. He wouldn't have dared to drive as fast if her mother was in the car. "I want to talk to you about the rule your mother and I have set."

Lily felt herself blush a little but she looked out of her window, her hair hiding the blush from her father. "What rule?"

"The one you listened in on last night," Harry shot at her Normally he hated it when people eavesdropped on his conversations but Lily, who sneaked a look at him behind her hair, saw that he was smiling at her. "What do you think of it?"

Lily sat up straighter but looked back out of her window. "I don't really know. I mean, it's not like it applies to me, is it?" she spoke sarcastically.

She heard her father sigh deeply and felt a tiny amount of guilt; she knew he hated that she seemed to resent her family for being able to do magic while she couldn't. She knew that her father was upset _for_ her for not being able to do it. She had overheard a conversation he had with her mother when she was twelve. She remembered the pain in his voice when he said that it wasn't fair that the thing most precious to him wasn't allowed to be a full member of the world that he loved most.

"But whatever," Lily replied with a shrug of her shoulders. She pulled her phone out of her pocket, formulating a text in her head to Oliver and Emery, saying that she wouldn't be catching the bus. "Oh, I won't be home for dinner tonight." She told her father as an afterthought as she tapped out the message.

"Lily . . . be home by ten thirty," her father sighed, not bothering to chase the subject of her attitude to magic, just like she knew he wanted to talk about.

###

Lily tuned out as her science teacher, Mrs Dempsey, droned on and on about the different chemical compounds. She hated science with a passion; it was the only class that Lily wasn't easily passing. Science just didn't come naturally to her; every experiment that she did ended up with her blowing the test tubes up. There's a scar on her arm where she somehow managed to get a tripod to burn through her blazer, her school jumper and then burn her skin when she was eleven. Mrs Dempsey was furious and after that she never let Lily near any of the dangerous equipment again.

She hated her science class; it was full of the students who ran to get behind the swimming block to have a cigarette before the teachers caught them.

And she also was forced to sit on the same table as Finn's younger twin brothers, Jace and Shay. It's not that Lily doesn't like the twins . . . it's just every time she sits next to them, they get that leering look in their eyes that reminds Lily that they both walked in the room just after her and Finn had sex and saw her practically naked. Ever since then, they continued to make it clear that they wanted to see more of her naked body and it freaked Lily out.

A slight slamming sound made her jump in surprise. Mrs Dempsey was standing in front of her with an armful of papers.

"Miss Potter, glad you could join us." Her teacher glared down at her. "Although if you look at your pitiful mark for your last exam, you would realise that you need to be with us more often," she said in a patronising tone that made Lily want to tell her where she could shove her exam paper.

However before she earn herself a detention for every day until they broke up for summer, the bell rang and all the other students got up from their seats, making Mrs Dempsey rush around trying to hand the papers out before everybody ran out the room. Lily took her time putting her belongings back in her bag – it was lunchtime.

"Do you want a hand with that?" Shay asked. As always the two boys waited for her.

She rolled her eyes but took her blazer off and folded it across the strap of her backpack; it was far too hot for her to have the blazer on in the yard. She picked up her overnight bag in her other hand. "I've got it covered Shay", she replied with an added sigh and led the three of them out of the room.

"Did you get home alright on Saturday?" Jace asked, walking on her left side while Shay was on her right.

Lily rolled her eyes. "Yeah I did."

"Finn was going to offer you to stay over," Shay told her. She looked around as they walked down the maths corridor. Normally a teacher would be around to yell at the twins for something they had done wrong the week beforehand but today the halls were empty but of the three of them. Just Lily's luck!

"I know he was," she replied, walking in the empty classroom in front of them to use the shortcut. If they went through this classroom and into the store cupboard, another door inside that cupboard would lead them to a short corridor that led to a fire-exit which then opened up onto the yard where the other students would be.

"How come you haven't stopped over? It's been about a month." Jace asked.

Lily stopped in her tracks, looking from one twin to another slowly. Jace looked more like Finn with his long legs, skinny chest and brown curly hair whereas Shay looked more like their younger sister Mika with his straight blonde hair and fair skin. All of the siblings had the same bright blue eyes though.

"Oh!" She struggled to find the words to explain her and Finn's 'relationship'. How does she define her casual on-and-off-but-mostly-off again relationship to two creeps who just happened to be the guy's brothers? "You two do know that Finn and I aren't boyfriend and girlfriend, right?" she asked, opening the door to the store cupboard.

"But you guys have done it loads of times!" Shay protested.

Lily pushed open the other door and blew out a deep breath as the twins followed. How did they know so much? Sure, it was obvious that she had had sex with Finn when they walked in – she was _naked_ for crying out loud! But how did they know she has had sex with him more than once?

"Who told you that?" she asked, storming up the short corridor pushing open the fire exit.

As soon as the fresh light hit her eyes, Lily could see her group of friends. They were all there sitting around two double sided benches with tables that they pushed together. She could make out Elle flirting with her boy toy for the week – it looked to be Harvey from the year below. Oliver was telling some joke to Isaac while Emery was sat between them all, a space beside her for Lily.

"Look, I don't even want to know. If there are rumours going around school that I bang your brother every day then stop them," she told the twins strongly and before they had the chance to say anything or leer down her top or up her skirt some more, she walked towards her group of friends.

"Elle!" she called out when she got close. "Put him down and help me pick out an outfit for my date!" She dropped down into the small gap between Oliver and Emery and hugged her cousin and friend.

Sometimes, Lily felt bad for Emery Baker. She was the new girl at school since her parents moved her all the way to England from Ireland three months ago. The two shared an Advanced Literature class together and since they were the only fifteen year olds in the class of sixteen and seventeen year olds, they both gravitated towards one another. Emery was a quiet and timid girl, a little over-weight but she had the nicest personality and Lily simply adored her. Even if some of the others in her friendship group didn't really like her, (Elle and Isabelle).

"You've got a date?" Emery asked curiously.

Lily nodded eagerly and put her bag on the table in front of them. "Uh huh, I met him in David's on Saturday –."

"So that's why you wouldn't stay at Finn's after the party?" Emery asked. Another reason why she felt bad for Emery was because she had the biggest crush on Finn but even Lily knew that he only had eyes for her.

"Why not still stay the night with Finn?" Isaac asked, reaching over to pinch her cheek annoyingly. "I mean, you slept with Finn whilst you have still been with your last two boyfriends," he pointed out.

Lily rolled her eyes at the mention of her past with Finn.

"First of all, James and I hardly counted," she exclaimed, shaking her head. "We were seeing each other for what, two weeks? Had sex once and Ryan and I . . . well I didn't cheat on Ryan," Lily clarified. "Besides I don't like Finn in that way anymore and I haven't for ages now."

"Why'd you have to go and break my heart like that Lily?" Finn's voice teased from behind.

When Lily turned around, she saw the oldest Reynolds, with his curly brown hair pushed out of his face, followed closely by the ever-present Bradley Nayer, Finn's best friend. The pair of them were two years ahead of Lily and were usually inseparable. They even took the same apprenticeship at a mechanics down the road from the school.

Rolling her eyes, Lily pulled a can of coke out of her backpack and popped the top. "Because the sooner it gets into that thick skull of yours, the happier we'll all be," she remarked in all seriousness, watching as Finn and Bradley hopped up onto the space on the opposite bench.

The attention immediately clung to Bradley as his eyes fell on Joelle who still had her lips attached to Harvey Mapps. Rolling her eyes at the awkwardness between the two of them, Lily sighed to herself and ordered her best friend to come up for air. Joelle pushed Harvey away slightly and flicked her hair over her shoulders, dabbing her lips to even the colour of her smudged lipstick. As she looked around at her friends, Lily watched her spot Bradley and saw the small smirk curl her lips.

Bradley and Joelle had a very complicated relationship, one that was nearly impossible to keep track of. One minute the pair were hating each other and then a week later, Joelle would be divulging on how great the makeup sex was. At the present moment, they hated each other.

"Bye Harvey," she whispered, loud enough for everyone to hear however and then she reached forward and kissed him again on the lips. Then she pushed him away to the point where he stumbled back.

As he scratched the back of his head, Harvey looked up from his shoes at Joelle, probably acutely aware that everyone was looking at him and Bradley was sending him death glares. "Will I see you tonight?" he asked in a quiet voice, no longer his arrogant self when he was around older boys like Oliver, Isaac, Finn and Bradley.

"Maybe," Joelle said with a shrug before turning her back to him and jumping up on the table of the bench opposite Lily. She didn't even bother to watch Harvey stumble away, instead choosing to rummage in her bag and find a packet of chewing gum. "So what options did you bring me to decide on?"

Lily tossed her the overnight bag she had been carrying around all day at Joelle and leaned back, taking a sip of her drink. "Hey Oli, can I come back to yours tonight for a bit so I can get ready for my date?" she asked her cousin, nudging him in the ribs.

"Of course," he replied, taking a bite into his sandwich and flicking his hair out of his face. Oliver Dursley was definitely her favourite cousin, followed closely by his sisters, Megan and little Grace. He had messy dark brown hair that he swept up and apart from that, looked a lot like his mother – something Lily's uncle was repeatedly thankful for. "Where is he taking you?"

"Yeah, where is this asshole taking you?" Finn added, making Lily roll her eyes in annoyance.

But before she could say anything to retaliation, Joelle did it for her. "Oh get a life Finn and stop stalking Lily's," she sighed as she packed the clothes back into the bag. "Tartan dress and over the knee socks," she said, throwing the bag back to Lily. "It's innocent but sexy at the same time!"

"What would I do without you?" Lily replied dramatically, tucking the bag under the bench and taking another swig of her coke.

Joelle smiled to herself as she rummaged in her bag for her salad box. "You'd probably be a fashion reject who's so weird, she only hangs out with her cousin!" she joked, flashing a bright smile at Oliver when he faked a hurt expression.

Her best friend's words made Lily think of her cousin Rose and how as far as she could gather, only hung out with Albus and the rest of their cousins at that school of theirs. Then she laughed at how Rose couldn't really dress herself past boring blouses and ugly jeans. Maybe Joelle was right.

"Where is he taking you then?" Oliver asked again, taking the can of coke out of her hand and swigging a big gulp of it down.

Lily simply shrugged. "I'm meeting him in London at five and the rest is a surprise," she said, snatching her drink back with a smirk on her face. "But we are going out to dinner. That's all I know."

"Make sure you call me when you get home and tell me all about it," Joelle interrupted, stabbing her fork into her chicken salad. "I want to hear all the sexy details!"

"Your wish is my command," she replied with a cheeky wink.

Then seeing as Oliver started asking for help on his Spanish homework and Lily didn't actually take Spanish, she turned to Emery on her left and rested her head on her shoulder. "I'm halfway through reading The Fault In Our Stars and I know something bad is going to happen. I don't know what but I just have this terrible foreboding that something is going to make me cry," she murmured, talking about the book that she had been recommended.

"Can I just apologise in advance?" Emery replied in her sweet quiet voice. "And just know that I'll make you brownies once you've finished!"

Lily smiled and nodded her head. "I would like that," she replied. "And perhaps some tissues too."

###

After lunch, Lily and Emery left everyone and went to their Advanced Literature class for the last two periods of the day. For just over two hours, they were stuck in class, discussing the cultural implications of the Jane Austen novels when they were written, surrounded by those in the year above. During that time, Lily just quietly sipped at her water bottle and scribbled down notes as the discussion progressed.

When the bell finally rang, Lily and Emery hopped out of their seats, quickly gathering their things up and heading to the front gates to meet Oliver. Together they caught the 21 bus that took them further into Finchley. It took forty minutes to get there but eventually they were at their stop. Lily and Oliver said goodbye to Emery, who was walking in the opposite direction and then the cousins trekked up the long hill where the Dursley's family house was – right at the bloody top.

At her Uncle Dudley's, Lily got changed into the outfit Joelle had picked out and was dragged into a tea party with her 5 year old cousin, Grace. In the huge lounge of their house, a lounge that had housed so many sleepovers, they set up a blanket and lots of teddies and had an imaginary tea party. The best part was when Grace forced her older brother to wear a tiara like both girls. Quickly Lily took a picture and uploaded it to her Facebook page.

The time flew by and soon she was saying goodbye to Oliver, Grace and her Aunt Imogen and was hurrying back down the hill to the bus stop. She made it just in time and sat down in a seat at the back, wedging herself between the window and a business man who was talking too loud on the phone. Taking her headphones out of her bag, she plugged them into her phone and blasted some Foo Fighters.

By the time she got back into London, she was running late. It was already 5 o clock when she got off the bus and she still had a walk to make to get to David's. Still she walked at a normal pace, not wanting to get there and be all hot and sweaty and out of breath in front of Scorpius. As she rounded the corner of the street that David's was on, she stopped to smile as she saw him waiting outside the door.

He hadn't spotted her yet, which left Lily time to scoop her wavy hair over her shoulder and admire her date. He was wearing dark jeans and boots with a white t-shirt tucked in. As a sort of jacket, he was wearing a checked shirt that bore the exact same colours as Lily's dress. She looked down at her own dress and let out a long sigh, throwing her arms up.

Then she walked up the pavement towards him. "You look lost," she said softly behind him, a small smile on her lips.

"Oh I'm just waiting for someone," Scorpius replied, before turning round and letting his surprised face turn into a smirking one. "And here she is," he added leaning down to plant a soft kiss on her cheek.

"Do you always kiss on the first dates?" Lily joked, trying to cool down her burning cheeks. Why was she reacting to him like this? She'd never blush when Finn kissed her.

Reaching down, he pulled her backpack off of her back. "Only the beautiful ones," he replied in a low voice that had Lily's stomach doing somersaults. "Now come on, I want to show you my favourite place before it closes." He stepped away from the bookstore and successfully managed to hail a taxi.

"Where are we going?" she asked, crossing her arms across her chest.

He held the taxi door open and waited for her to move towards him. "You'll love it, I promise," he said, and although he gave her no more information than that, she climbed into the back to the taxi.

###

In the end, the taxi took the pair of them into the centre of London, stopping outside Westminster Abbey. Scorpius paid the taxi driver with a crisp £20 note and didn't collect the change, instead helping Lily out. Then they walked up to the entrance, Scorpius smirking all the way.

"Why are we at a church?" Lily asked impatiently, trying to figure out when this was one of Scorpius' favourite places in London. He didn't seem very religious. Then again, could you really tell someone believed in God just by looking at them?

He laughed his rumbling laugh that had Lily's stomach swimming with butterflies instantly. "We're here to visit some friends," he replied simply, thoroughly confusing Lily. Was this the date? Meeting his friends?

Nevertheless she followed him inside along with all of the tourists who was flittering around, snapping pictures at everything. It seemed like Scorpius was leading her to the south side of the Abbey. "That's where we're going," Scorpius said softly. "Poet's Corner."

Poet's Corner was a memorial in Westminster Abbey dedicated to all of the amazing English writers. Lily had read about the place in books and had even seen photos of it online but she'd never visited it. If she had asked some of her friends to come, none of them would be that interested, apart from maybe Emery.

A group of Chinese tourists were blocking Lily's view of Poet's Corner, which was starting to annoy her terribly the more and more she waited. At first Lily waited patiently but when it seemed like they wanted to take a million photos of the monument, along with pictures of themselves by the plaques and tombs of famous writers, she snapped. "I know I'm short but that usually means people don't stand DIRECTLY IN FRONT OF ME!" she muttered, ending in a slow shout in the hopes that one of the tourists understood English.

"You really don't have a lot of patience, do you?" Scorpius muttered beside her, his smirk sending her butterflies aflutter.

In response, Lily just shook her head, blowing out a final sigh when she looked forward and saw the Chinese tourists moving on. As they moved off, one of the taller men shoved past Lily, sending her flying into Scorpius. Acting on instinct, she reached out and gripped his hand tightly, then turning around to yell obscenities to the guy that pushed into her.

When she turned back around to face Scorpius, she quickly realised that her hand was still holding on to his tightly. With a small blush burning her cheeks, Lily let out go of his hand and stepped up to the monument. "Sorry about that," she muttered quietly, knotting her hands together.

"It's ok," he murmured in her ear, and when Lily pulled her attention away from Shakespeare and looked up at him, she smiled at his warm smile.

Then without any words being spoken, their eyes never leaving one another's, their hands reached out simultaneously and intertwined, fingers twisting together. Scorpius gave her hand a soft squeeze and pulled her into his side as they looked at the memorials in front of them.

"Wow!" Lily gasped, her eyes flickering from name to name: William Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, C.S. Lewis, authors she had read the works of so many times. "They are all here!" she sighed.

"Technically no, only a few of the names are actually buried here," Scorpius said quietly, tilting his head to speak softly into her ear.

Looking up at him, she smiled up at him. "Even then, I can see why this is one of your favourite places. There is so much history here," she said, turning her attention back to the monument. "It's unfathomable."

"It is amazing," he replied, squeezing her hand in his own.

As her attention pulled to their twisted hands, Lily had a spark of an idea and turned around, her focus on an old man who was snapping picture with a fancy camera hung around his neck. Pulling her phone out of her bag, she pulled up her camera and let go of Scorpius' hand. "Excuse me? Could you take a picture of me and my friend please?" she asked and when the old man nodded, she showed him how to take a picture and then moved back next to Scorpius.

His arm snaked around her back, his hand resting respectably on the top of his hip. Not even realising it, she wrapped her own arm around him and allowed him to curl her up slightly against his side. As the old man aimed her phone at them, Lily looked up at Scorpius and smiled at him, feeling butterflies in her stomach as he smiled down at her. Then she turned to the old man and continued to smile until the old man smiled in return and handed her phone back.

"Thank you," she said quietly, dropping her phone back into her bag. She didn't want to seem self-conscious by checking the photo.

When she looked back up at Scorpius, he held his hand out. "Shall we go and get some dinner?" he asked with a smirk on his face.

"Can you hear my stomach growling?" Lily joked in reply, placing her hand in his and letting him lead the way out of Westminster Abbey, leaving all the famous writers and poets behind her.

* * *

_Author's Note: We really hope that you enjoy this chapter! We love writing this story and it's great to hear that you like it!_

_Thank you!_


	3. Chapter 3

When the final bell rang out of the end of school, Lily was overwhelmed with the urge to throw all of her notes up in the air like they did in High School Musical two. However better judgement told her that she may need the notes next year if she had to retake exams. Instead she packed her doodles up and threw them into her satchel, fixing the clasp and throwing it over her shoulder.

"That's it," she squealed excitedly, flipping her hair over her shoulder. "No more school for six weeks!"

Oliver laughed, pulling his arms through the straps in his backpack. "I've been waiting for this all year!" he exclaimed, linking arms with his cousin and pulling her out of the classroom. "Now to the beach!"

Rolling her eyes, Lily secured her bag, holding it closer to her body as they entered the corridors where everyone was scrambling to get out for the summer. "I'm just glad school is over, now I don't have to wait until the weekends to see Scorpius."

"When are we going to meet the mysterious Scorpius?" Oliver inquired persistently, nudging her in the ribs. "I need to know if he's good enough for my favourite cousin."

Lily nudged him back. "We both know that I'm only your favourite because I'm the only normal one. Besides, you'll meet him eventually! I just don't want to scare him off!"

From the other side of the corridor, Joelle caught up with them and linked her arm with Oliver's. "Let's go to the beach, beach! Let's go get away!" she cheered, practically jumping with excitement. "No more fucking school bitches!"

"Calm down Elle before you piss your pants again!" Lily cried.

Leaning over Oliver, Joelle hissed under her breath, "That was one time Potter," making the cousins fall into fits of laughter. The three of them practically danced through the halls of their school – in Elle's case she literally did dance. She was always dancing, even when she was sitting down her feet were jigging away. Lily had to admit though, if she was even half a good a dancer as her best friend is, she'd be dancing constantly too.

"So what's the plan for tonight then my lovely ladies?" Oliver asked as they joined the crowd of pupils wanting to go down the same staircase. "Should we do the beach?"

Lily and Joelle were both saved the task of answering because Isabelle pounced on Oliver's back and grinned down at them. "Finn just text me. He's got hold of a van and we're going to the beach! You guys in?" She jumped down from his back and moved in front of them, shoving and pushing some of the younger students out of her way so they could leave school quicker.

"Does a bear shit in the woods?" Lily teased back. Her phone vibrated in her pocket so she pulled it out and quickly read over a message from Emery. "Oh guys, Em is about five minutes away on the bus. She skipped today to do a shift in her parents' cafe. She says she got Finn's message about an hour ago and wants to know if we'll meet her at the bus stop or wait for her," She read aloud.

"No," Joelle said straight away. "She can run from the bus stop, might lose a few pounds while she's at it," she muttered under her breath, making Oliver and Lily both lean over to nip her arm hard. "Ouch!"

"Text Em and tell her I'm on my way. Finn will be at the garage so might ask him to pick us up from the bus stop." Oliver stopped walking with them and turned in the opposite direction. To get to Emery's bus stop it would be quicker for him to leave the school through the fire exit two corridors back.

"How are you spending your summer?" Joelle asked Isabelle through a forced voice as she pulled her own phone out of her bra since her outfit had no pockets. Well, the shorts she was wearing did have pockets but they were so tight that they wouldn't hold her phone.

"I don't know. Aaron is home from Spain and he's spending a few weeks of it here so I'll probably hang out with him for a while and then go to Spain to see our dad," Isabelle shrugged, speaking in the same tone that Joelle spoke to her with.

Lily rolled her eyes as she tapped out a message; she honestly doesn't see why Joelle and Isabelle just couldn't get along without being awkward or bitchy! They're the most similar girls she knows!

"That's right! Aaron told me he was home for a few weeks," Joelle said snidely.

Before Isabelle could do anything but glare at the smug grin that Joelle flashed her, the three girls hurried out of the doors and were immediately called over to where Isaac, Natalie and Bradley were sitting on some grass.

"We're just waiting for Finn and the van," Natalie told them.

"Ollie has gone to meet Emery. He said that Finn's going to pick them up from the bus stop in the van, ten minutes tops," Lily told the others while she dropped down to sit on the grass.

Almost immediately Bradley started asking questions about Scorpius – which Lily knew Finn obviously put him up to.

"So, have you made any more plans to see this posh private school bloke?" he fired at Lily.

"We're going out on Monday, Brad," she answered patiently. "You can tell Finn that we're going to the park and after that I don't know," she said, making Isabelle, Natalie, Isaac and Joelle all laugh at the blush forming on his Bradley's face.

The remaining five minutes past in complete silence, the girls all fell to their backs so they could catch some last minute tans and the guys tried to not make it obvious that they were checking the girls out. Before long a loud and continuous beeping told them that Finn had arrived. He pulled up in front of them in a battered and dented rusty white Van that had seen much better days.

"What do you think of the wheels?" he called out, grinning from the driver's seat. Lily got up with her friends and looked the vehicle over; she spied a dozen seats through the windows and grinned when she also saw several cardboard boxes with bottles of alcohol in them.

"Nice ride," she mocked.

"Those seats at the back are comfy, Lil," Finn exclaimed with a wink. "Come on, sooner we get going sooner we get to the beach!"

Lily went back to pick her bag up but then froze.

Parked directly behind the rusty old white van was the black Range Rover car that her father drove. The windows, normally blacked out, were all rolled down showing her parents in the front seats and her brothers in the back.

"Sweetheart, we're going to your grandparents. Come on," her dad called out of the front seat.

Lily looked from her parents' car to the van where all of her friends were looking slightly disappointed.

"Hey, Uncle Harry! Hi, Aunt Ginny!" Oliver dangled out of a window and waved at them. Her parents waved back and laughed lightly.

"Oh my days – Lily your dad is _fine_!" Isabelle groaned quietly. Lily looked at her girlfriends and saw that each of them were looking towards the car with grins on their faces. Albeit Emery and Natalie were looking towards James who was ignoring them and reading a book, but Isabelle was grinning towards Harry. Lily rolled her eyes and gently punched her.

"Hey, quit checking my dad out. That's gross."

She looked towards Joelle and saw her exchanging a very flirtatious look with Albus, who had gotten out of the car and was holding the door open for Lily to climb in.

"Seriously! Stop checking my male relatives out! They're disgusting!" Lily shoved Elle roughly. "I'll see you at Megan's party tomorrow." She leant over to give Emery a kiss on the cheek and then threw her bag across her shoulder, slowly making her way over to the car.

Albus got in after her and closed the door, leaving Lily squished between her two hulking big brothers. "Why are we going to the Burrow?" she immediately asked as she fidgeted around in her seat trying to put her seatbelt on.

"Hello to you too," Ginny replied in an appalled voice. "Because your grandparents want to see all of their grandchildren together one last time before they begin to bail out on the meals over summer," she continued.

"Before Lily comes up with stupid reasons to ditch you mean," James muttered without looking up from his book.

"Before Lily makes plans with her friends, much the same as Dominique, Freddie and Hugo do too," Ginny finished, ignoring the annoyed tone in her son's voice and watching as Finn started up the ratty old van. "Finn has grown since I last saw him. Quite the handsome young man."

Lily rolled her eyes but looked at where Finn was turning the van around in front of them. He looked through Harry's windshield and extended an arm out of his window, waving farewell to Lily and her family.

"Meh, he's alright-looking I suppose," she shrugged, her mind going to Scorpius who was definitely more than quite a handsome young man. "Are we leaving or staying in my schools car park for all my summer holidays?"

Her dad just nodded and started the car, leaving Lily to simply wave out of the window at her friends. "So how was school?" he asked.

She shrugged. "Ok I guess." Then she pulled out of her iPhone and opened up her conversation with Oliver. _'Don't have too much fun without me!'_

"What are you reading?" she asked James who was pushing his glasses up his nose.

Her brother's face brightened up. "It's a really good read on the value of Hippogriff blood on-."

"Forget I asked!" Lily exclaimed, peering down at her phone as Oliver's reply came in.

'_Not going to the beach without you! Heading to Hyde Park instead for ice cream,' _she read, smiling at how sweet her friends were. It was probably Finn who persuaded them all to not go to the beach. In fact, he probably only wanted to go in the hopes of seeing Lily in her underwear one last time.

# # #

The car journey just seemed to go on and on, and Lily could think of a million things she would rather be doing. She wasn't really paying much attention to what her parents were discussing, too busy tapping out messages to her friends or laughing to herself when she went on her Facebook page and saw the numerous uploads everybody in her year had done while celebrating the end of the school year and the beginning of the summer.

"That looks interesting," Albus commented. Lily looked up to see her brother looking down at her phone screen curiously. It was a long drive from their house to their grandparents'. Normally her grandparents would come to see her but on occasions like this when they insisted Lily and her family come to them or Christmas or a birthday dinner, Harry would usually drive him and Lily to their house alone. Most of the time her mother and brothers used the fireplace or Apparated and met them there a couple of hours later. She didn't really care why they decided to join her and her father on their car ride this time.

She looked back at her screen and saw him looking at the photo a girl in the year above her had posted; a deck of cards spread out in a circle with a jug of alcohol in the middle. She grinned and looked back up at her brother when she recognised the game and laughed. "It is."

"What's a dilf?" Albus asked suddenly.

Lily felt her eyes widen as she burst out laughing at her brother's random and innocent yet hilarious question. "What? Where did you learn that word?" she laughed, ignoring the irritated look James gave them, the smile Ginny shot over her shoulder and the glance Harry gave them through the mirror.

Albus nodded to her phone so she looked down and saw that Isabelle had posted a status update. _"Lily Potter's daddy is a DILF. I called it."_ Already it had twenty likes.

She looked up and saw both her brothers looking at her, her mother looking over her shoulder and her dad looking through the mirror still. "I'll tell you later," she muttered to Albus before she pulled her earphones out of her bag at her feet.

She plugged them in, loaded up her playlist that normally relaxes her and then set her feet up to rest on the side of her mother's front passenger seat. She rested her head against the headrest behind her and closed her eyes, content with listening to the melodic sounds of _Mumford and Sons _floating through her ears.

# # #

As soon as Harry parked the car in front of the Burrow, her mother and brothers got out and left Harry and Lily in the car alone. She sighed as she pulled herself out of the car and then jumped out of the large vehicle. As usual, her dad was there to catch her and steady her fall.

"Thanks Daddio." She smiled up at him and waited until he had locked the car up before she headed towards the house. When she was younger and used to fit in, she would love coming here. All of her best memories were here and then when she learned she wasn't like the rest of them and they stopped including her in their games and her older cousins stopped telling stories of their time at school whenever she got close to them, and then when she started school and wanted to be with her own friends rather than with her aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents, the happy memories became distant memories and the warm and loveable house became a house she dreaded going to.

"Have you turned your phone off?" Harry held an arm out, stopping her from getting any closer to the house. She sighed deeply but nodded her head slowly; two Christmases ago Lily forgot that her Muggle appliances wouldn't work around all the magic of the Burrow so she brought along the camera she received that year. She was in the process of taking a photo of the snow covered orchard when the camera literally exploded in her hands. Luckily her Uncle Charlie was close enough to knock it out of her hands so she didn't get burned.

"We won't stay long."

"An hour?" Lily let her dad put an arm around her and asked hopefully.

"No more than four, I promise." Harry bent down to kiss his daughter's head before they walked through the front door.

Noise. Lots of noise and people met the two of them as soon as they opened the door.

Lily ducked out of the way when she saw one of the stupid indoor fireworks fly towards her which Harry lazily flicked away. She looked around with a disapproving scowl on her face when she looked at what all of her cousins and brothers were doing. James was sitting on a small table with Molly, the two of them putting what looked like a rat's tail into a rust covered cauldron. Albus was playing a game of cards with Louis but the cards looked badly burnt and smoke was coming off of them. Roxanne, Lucy, Rose and Victoire were all looking through a stack of magazines with a moving front cover and Hugo was fiddling with what Lily knew to be a Wireless radio that was currently blasting out a song about having sex like dragons.

Only Dominique was missing and that was a shame, normally she would be the one to keep Lily sane.

"Careful mate," her Uncle Charlie said as he came out of the kitchen and headed up the stairs. "Muriel's here." He scowled and took the stairs two at a time.

Lily felt all the eyes turn to her and she turned to look at her father. "Take me home. Now!" she demanded.

Her great-great aunt Muriel seemed to dislike Lily. Ever since she was a little girl, Muriel would always glare or shout at her. She didn't care if the elderly woman was close to one hundred and forty years old, the sooner she croaked it the better.

"Ok, no more than three hours. Deal?" Harry sucked in a deep breath and looked from the door to Lily.

"You owe me a very expensive and shiny present for this," Lily responded and glared at her dad but stomped towards the doorway to the kitchen anyway.

All of her aunts and uncles were in the kitchen with her mother and Teddy. As usual Lily ignored Teddy and looked forward where her grandmother was observing self-stirring wooden spoons in half a dozen pans.

"Hi Lily!" some of her aunts and uncles chorused together. "Well done on another year at school! How was it?"

Lily moved over to where her grandmother was and looked cautiously around for the skinny, doubled over old woman that was her great-great aunt. "Fine. Hi Grandma." She kissed her grandmother's cheek and then froze when the back door opened and the miserable face of Muriel Prewett glared at her through large glasses.

"Who's this one?" she screeched, using the worktops and shoulders of her relatives to aid her way to her chair at the head of the table. She sat down and waved away Ron's offering of a cup of tea.

"Aunt Muriel, this is my Lily." Ginny got up and put a hand on Lily's shoulder. "Hasn't she grown since you last seen her? She's almost sixteen now –."

"Oh yes. Her." Muriel's face formed into a wicked grin that made Lily scowl heavily at the woman everybody else seemed to fuss around. "The one named after the dead Potter girl and Xenophilius' wacko daughter." Lily felt her temper rising. "The Squib."

She opened her mouth but when her dad kicked her shin and her mother squeezed her shoulder at the same time her aunts and uncles shook their heads wildly at her she forced it shut.

"She's a bit on the skinny side. She could be mistaken for the Muggle-born's daughter with those skinny ankles," she sniffed disdainfully. "Look at how much skin she has on display! As much a floozy as the part-Veela I imagine!"

Lily opened her mouth again but her mother's grip got stronger. She felt a little better when she saw what looked like an encouraging smile on her Aunt Fleur's face.

"Don't they feed her at that Muggle school? I suppose if she'd have been allowed to go to our school then she –."

"I don't _want_ to go to your bloody school!" Lily shoved her mother's hand away and felt her temper burst. "Just shut up you miserable old hag! I am _not_ a floozy and neither is Aunt Fleur! I do _not_ have skinny ankles and neither does Aunt Hermione! You're just a bitter old woman and the sooner you croak it the better!" she yelled irritably as she pushed past her father, ripped open the wooden kitchen door and slammed it shut after her.

She stormed through the back yard, nudging a few chickens out of her way with her foot and marched straight into her favourite place in the bloody house – her granddad's shed. It was full of Muggle appliances and weirdly enough it was the only place that her phone or other devices would work without Magical interference. Her mother told her a couple of months ago that before she was born, Hermione and George came up with a charm that allowed Arthur to play with the Muggle things as they should work.

"Hello poppet." Arthur himself was standing behind his work bench, an old DVD player in front of him with his open tool box beside it.

"Hi Grandpa." Lily chimed and hugged her granddad, looking down at the DVD player. "Where did you get this from?"

"A skip in Mug – erm, Scotland," he muttered. "That was a rather loud slam I just heard. What happened?"

Lily picked the DVD player up and carried it over to where a plug socket had been added. She plugged it in and wasn't at all surprised to find it didn't work. "Muriel called me a whore, insulted Fleur and Hermione and spoke harshly about Grandma Lily," she huffed, walking back over to the workbench and handing her grandfather back the DVD player.

He normally managed to get them working again, and although Lily suspected he eventually used magic to repair them, she couldn't get angry with him. Out of this crazy, idiotic family, her granddad Arthur seemed to be the only person she could speak to, no matter what her problem was.

"Oh poppet," he chuckled softly and pressed a kiss to the top of her head. "You sure know how to make my life amusing."

# # #

Lily and her grandpa ended up staying in the shed right up until Albus popped his head around the door and told them Grandma had ordered the two of them out of the shed and to the table. Arthur assured her that he would seat her as far from Muriel as possible on the condition she didn't cause trouble around the table. Lily, not being one to want to disappoint her grandfather, agreed.

That's why she ended up sitting between Hugo and an empty chair that was for Dominique. Hugo and Dominique were the two cousins she got on the best with, even if that was a stretch. Hugo and Lily grew up together and when she was little and before he started school he would play Muggle games with her instead of magical ones with the rest of the family. Occasionally he would write to her from school, but it was always a week or a couple of weeks before the end of term so Lily never wrote back to him.

Dominique, being Dominique, was always the one that Lily could count on to do something or say something worse than she did or said to get her out of trouble. Like right now for example; her cousins were asking Lily what she said to Muriel when Dominique Apparated in the yard and sauntered in through the back door.

"Hey family," she exclaimed, waving lazily and manoeuvring around her chair.

Lily saw Fleur hold a hand up in front of Bill and shook her head when she saw her uncle let out a deep breath before he spoke. "Where have you been?! You were supposed to be here an hour ago!" He looked over at her legs which were bare under the tiny skirt she was wearing. "And where are the tights you left home wearing this morning?"

Dominique sat down in the empty chair next to Lily and pulled the plate of lamb chops towards her. "I've been at Zoe's all day, lost track of time and yeah I was but they ripped so I binned them instead of putting them back on," she said nonchalantly.

Lily snickered to herself, understanding the meaning behind Dominique's words. Evidently everybody else did because her cousins gasped and began whispering amongst themselves, her uncle's all scowled, grandma Molly frowned, Aunt Muriel asked loudly what Dominique said and Bill turned bright red and had to look away from his youngest daughter.

A short while later, after dinner passed by relatively drama-free (meaning Lily ate her food in silence and then pulled her book out of her bag and read in silence and ignored all of the conversations around her,) and the adults ordered the children to tidy up after dinner, Lily was scrubbing the very long wooden table down as her school-aged cousins quizzed Dominique on her afternoon.

"Zoe who?"

"Zoe Goyle or Zoe Tomlinson?"

"Goyle," Dominique said simply as she placed the leftover food in the pantry neatly.

"Is she even a lesbian?" Albus asked curiously from his position overseeing the plates stacking themselves back on the shelf.

Dominique picked up the bag she had when she arrived and headed for the living room door. "If she isn't then I just had one hell of a daydream," she said, opening the door and closing it softly behind her.

# # #

It was after eleven when Lily and her family finally got back to her house. She had fallen asleep in the car on the way home and only woke up when Albus nudged her gently.

Her father's promise of staying for a few hours went out the window around seven o'clock. She knew that it would and while she was sitting in the window seat finishing her book and trying not to show her family that the book had moved her to tears, she was thinking of what she could have him buy her or let her do in payback.

"Oh, you dropped this," James called over, handing Lily her phone when Albus helped her out of the car. Surprised that she forgot it, she took it back and then was even more surprised to see that she still hadn't turned it back on from before she entered her grandparents' house. She quickly loaded it up as she sluggishly moved towards her house.

She wasn't that surprised to see she had a dozen text messages from her friends, half a dozen drunken pictures from their adventures in the park – how their venture to the park for ice-cream turned into them getting drunk she didn't know. She was just tapping out a message to Elle in response to the four she had when her phone vibrated and an unknown number flashed up on the screen.

She answered it straight away, knowing who it was.

"Hey you."

"There's the voice I've been waiting all night to hear."

Lily looked over her shoulder and saw her father and Albus looking at her curiously. She suddenly felt more awake and quickened her steps to get into the house. She didn't need or want her dad and the only brother that seemed to care about her over hearing her flirting down the phone to Scorpius.

"All night? Pfft don't lie to me. We both know you've been waiting all your life to listen to this voice," she retorted. She skipped past her mother in the front hall and took the stairs two at a time until she reached the top floor and her bedroom.

"Ah you caught me out – have you been running?" he chuckled but stopped when she started breathing heavily. "Or has the sound of my voice took your breath away?"

Lily laughed as she fell back on her bed. "Totally. Be still my beating heart."

Scorpius laughed again. "How was your day? You finished school for the summer, right?"

"Yeah. It was cool until I got forced to go to my grandparents. Me and my elderly great-great aunt had a run in. Apparently she thinks I was displaying too much skin –."

"I don't think you display too much skin at all. In face if you want to show off even more –."

Lily felt herself blush at his words and none too subtle hints. "Oh shut up pervert. Anyway, I was supposed to go to the beach and get drunk to celebrate –."

"Oh, a drunk half-naked Lily, even better."

"Do you want to ring me back after you've given yourself a little attention? You seem to have a one-track mind," Lily teased.

Ever since their first date in that Italian over a month ago, Lily noticed that their phone calls got more and more teasing regarding sex. They hadn't had a conversation yet where one insinuated something sexy about the other. Even when they met up at weekends in London for the Saturday afternoon, they always ended it with a very steamy snog in the train station. She didn't know about him, but it definitely left her wanting more.

"Oh please, I can practically see you panting over the image of me drunk in just my shorts," he retorted playfully.

"_To continue on with your call please insert more change."_

Lily groaned out loud at the usual interference of the automatic message that was on the payphones Scorpius used to ring her on since he didn't have a mobile.

"I don't have any change left. It's getting late anyway, I'll let you get some sleep," he sighed deeply and sounded resigned.

"You need to get a phone of your own," Lily told him. "We could have talked all night about me being drunk and you being in your shorts."

"Oh fuck that –." The droning sound that told Lily the line went dead made her want to laugh, cry and groan out loud.

# # #

"Ok, what are you wearing tonight?" Lily asked, tilting her laptop screen up so that her webcam could fit all of herself in. "Because I've become ensembly-challenged and need your guidance!"

On the screen in front of her, Joelle was sat in matching white underwear, painting her nails jet black in her room. "Stop being so dramatic," she exclaimed, glancing up and blowing her nails dry. "I think I'm going to wear my leather pants and maybe a lacy crop top?" As she picked up her phone, she looked at Lily through the screen. "What do you have that's clean?"

"I don't know!" Lily sighed loudly, throwing up a pile of clothes into the air around her. "Should I wear a dress tonight or not?" she asked, leaning out of her wardrobe so she could see her laptop.

Joelle's laughter echoed, high and chiming. "Did you not learn your lesson from Megan's last party?" she responded with a snicker, knowing all too well that Lily got too drunk that night to remember much. "Four words: trampoline, dress, Jace, boner!"

"That's a definite no for dresses then!" Burying herself back into her wardrobe, it seemed like all Lily could find were dresses. "What about some denim shorts?"

As she looked over at her laptop screen, acid-wash shorts in her hand, Lily saw Joelle roll her eyes. "We said that we'd dress up tonight! You can't wear your shorts, you practically live in them," she explained.

Lily let out a loud breath and threw her shorts on the floor. "What then?" she cried, looking at her wardrobe with no hope. "You aren't being very helpful Elle!"

"What about that jumpsuit you bought a couple of weeks ago in River? I've not seen you wear that yet," Joelle offered, holding her nails up and inspecting them.

Nearly tripping over her school satchel, Lily made her way to all of the shopping bags she hadn't found the time to unpack yet. She quickly found the bright blue River Island bag, pulling out the black sheer jumpsuit. "This could work," she called back so that Joelle could hear.

"I told you!" Joelle called back. "Now I need to get dressed. What time are you leaving for Meg's?"

"Probably seven if I can convince my dad to give me a lift, which he should because he owes me for yesterday," Lily answered, moving over to her laptop. "If not, Finn can come and pick me up."

"You best get ready then," Joelle retorted, blowing kisses at Lily through the screen before ending the conversation.

Closing her laptop down, Lily threw it further back onto her bed and moved to the shelves of CDs. She picked out one of her favourites to listen to when she was getting ready, and placed it into her stereo. Seconds later, Freddie Mercury's voice was blasting through her room with the words to _'Another One Bites The Dust'_. With a smirk, she stripped off her comfy clothes and walked in her bathroom, turning on the shower while she washed the small traces of makeup off her face.

She could have stayed under the hot water for hours, just revelling in how amazing it felt. Already she had washed her hair and shaved her legs and washed her body with her favourite glittery soap, but she wasn't ready to get out. All her cares seemed to wash away and she knew as soon as she stepped out of the shower, they would all rise back up like the steam.

However she really needed to get ready. Wrapping a towel tight around her body, she walked back into her room, singing along to '_We Are The Champions'_, which was her anthem. She waited for the song to finish, slipping into black lacy underwear that she thought matched. Being at the top of the house meant that Lily could parade around her room in her underwear all she liked, but she closed the curtains, just in case her brothers were playing that stupid game with them bloody flying sweeping brushes. She laughed to herself when she remembered how Albus very nearly had a nervous breakdown when she was eight and used his broomstick to sweep the kitchen up.

When the track was finished, because she couldn't have interrupted Freddie, she added a little bit of product and then blow dried it. The style for tonight was big curls that Lily shaped using her hair straighteners. Then she switched the music to a Fall Out Boy album and grabbed her makeup bag out of her satchel. After decorating her face with smoky eyes, dark plum lips and a touch of bronzer, Lily packed the makeup she'd need for touch-up into a leather bag and got changed.

The jumpsuit Joelle had helped her pick out with black and sheer. It scrunched up at her ankles and had a massive plunge in the neckline, exposing cleavage on each side. However it was still modest with sheer fabric covering it up. It had small, capped sleeves and hugged Lily's body tight. "Joelle, you are a genius," she murmured, turning around in front of the mirror and smoothing everything down. She double and then triple checked that the jumpsuit didn't ride up at her lady garden; last thing she wanted was a camel toe. With a flash of her smile, Lily unplugged her phone from its charger, stuffed it into her bag with her house keys, grabbed her heeled cut-out boots and hurried down the stairs.

"Dad! Can you drop me off at Megan's?" she called out from the bottom step, where she was sat zipping her boots up.

"Of course honey," her dad called back. "Let me just find my keys!"

Lily got up and walked into the kitchen, heading straight for the fridge to get a bottle of water. "They're by the landline Daddio!" she told him, rolling her eyes as she sipped her water.

Her dad walked in and blushed, hurrying straight for his keys. "What would I do without you?" he joked, washing out his coffee mug in the sink. "You look beautiful by the way," he said, wiping his hands on a tea towel.

"Aw thanks," she replied with a blush, looking at her watch. "Do you think we could go now Daddy?"

Harry smiled warmly at her. "Let's go!"

###

Megan Dursley was simply the coolest cousin in the world. She was nineteen, with long and wavy brown hair. When Lily was starting Muggle school, it was Megan that helped prepare her. When she wanted to start shaving, it was Megan who bought her the razors and showed her what to do. When she wanted to have sex with Finn for the first time, it was Megan who packed her with condoms and made sure she was ready. Without the oldest Dursley looking out for her, Lily would have been lost.

She was also the best person to throw a party.

When Lily arrived at Megan's tiny house, she could already hear the music inside. Leaning over her armrest, she kissed her dad on the cheek and told him she'd see him tomorrow. Then she hopped out of the car and crossed the road, banging on the door before letting herself in.

"Lily!" a high-pitched squeal announced. "There's my favourite cousin!"

Closing the door behind her, Lily smirked and hugged her taller cousin. "How's working with the fanny inspectors Meg?" The oldest Dursley was a receptionist at a family-planning clinic, planning on starting her training after the summer to be a nurse. Lily loved to tease her about her job.

"Let's just get you a drink," Megan laughed, wrapping an arm around Lily's shoulders and pulling her into the kitchen. "I like the jumpsuit by the way."

"Hi Lily," Megan's gorgeous boyfriend Tobias called out from behind the breakfast bar. "What are you drinking tonight?"

Lily hopped up onto one of the stool while Megan simply leaned against the bar. "Archers and lemonade please," she said with a smile. "Is Ollie here yet?" she asked Megan.

"He's in the living room, dancing with Emery," Tobias answered, pulling out a bottle of Archers and a bottle of lemonade out of the cupboard. "Now do you want it in a sippy cup?"

"A glass will do," she replied with a roll of her eyes.

"Now tell me about this mystery boy that Finn is so angry about," Megan asked with a nudge in Lily's ribs.

Of course Megan would already know about Scorpius. "I don't know why Finn's angry, just because I might be banging someone that's not him," Lily joked, sipping on the drink Tobias handed her.

"Are you having sex with him already Lils?"

"No!" Lily exclaimed. "At least not yet anyway."

All of a sudden, the front door slammed shut and heels tapped their way down the hall, audible over the muffled music in the next room. "Who is ready to party?!" Joelle's voice echoed loudly, just as she stepped into the kitchen, wearing leather pants, a white lacy crop top and nude heels. "Double vodka and coke please," she told Tobias, kissing Megan's cheek and then Lily's.

"You're looking amazingly good tonight Elle. Trying to impress someone?" Tobias asked, passing her drink to her.

Joelle simply flipped her hair over her shoulder and climbed up on another stool. "I don't need to try," she smirked. "Now it's time to get drunk!" With that, she necked her drink in one, barely reacting to the vodka.

# # #

It was the best party Lily could have expected. She danced with Joelle, mimicking her best friend as she danced so effortlessly. She played Ring of Fire – the worst drinking game ever played. She even managed a couple of flips on the trampoline. It was definitely the best way to celebrate the beginning of summer.

When the music had died down and most of the party-goers had left, Lily curled up in the spare room next to Oliver and Embry. Usually Joelle would have stayed too but she left with Aaron instead. Finn tried to invite Lily back to his but of course, she turned him down. Instead, she lay slightly buzzed under the duvet, reliving the night.

"I can't believe Natalie got that drunk," Oliver exclaimed quietly. "I mean, why did she strip off on the trampoline and fling her bra over the fence?"

Emery blew out a long breath. "I don't think Megan's neighbour will be happy in the morning when they find a bra in their garden," she remarked with a little laugh.

At that moment, Lily's phone buzzed with an unknown number. "Hey baby!" she answered seductively, rolling onto her front so she was pressed up against Oliver's side. "Are you calling for a bit of phone sex?"

"Did you get drunk without me baby?" Scorpius' voice replied.

"Not drunk baby, just buzzed," she replied with a smirk on her face. Even on the phone, Scorpius still managed to get her heart pounding in a way Finn never could. She looked up at her watch. "What are you doing up this late?"

His laugh rumbled low. "I just got home and needed to hear your voice. Now I can hear it, I wish you were here with me."

"I have that effect on guys," Lily remarked jokingly.

"Not too many I hope," Scorpius responded quickly. "Anyway I was hoping to take you out on Monday."

Raising an eyebrow, she smiled to herself. "That could work!"

"I'll meet you at David's at four then baby," he stated confidently.

"Try to keep your dick in check until then. See you on Monday!" And with a smirk to herself, Lily hung up the phone and looked up at Oliver. "What?"

His eyes were wide and his eyebrows were raised. "Just Scorpius," she replied casually. "We're meeting up on Monday."

"That's it! We have to meet this guy," Emery exclaimed, making Lily laugh.

# # #

Lily woke up with a pounding headache, a ridiculously dry mouth and something digging in her back. She wearily opened her eyes and lazily moved Emery's hair out of her face before she swallowed it. She moved her head and rolled her eyes when she saw that the thing digging in her back was Oliver's morning surprise.

She kicked out at his shin, making him wake up.

"What the hell Lily? I was having a dream –."

"Yeah I know what you were dreaming about!" she moaned, struggling to sit up. "Get your dick off my back!" she reached out to gently shake Emery. "Em, wake up."

Emery groaned and pulled the duvet up over her head. "Oh sweet mother of – my head Lily! What did we drink last night?!"

Lily was going to answer but a vibrating sound from somewhere around her bum made her jump, Oliver groan and clutch his groin and Emery dive out of bed and jump for the rubbish bin close to the door. Lily answered the phone as she tried to block out the sounds of Emery throwing up not even three feet away from her.

"Hello?" she spoke groggily.

"Morning baby!"

"Ergh. Please don't shout," she whispered down the phone to Scorpius. She groaned slightly when he chuckled softly.

"I thought you weren't drunk last night?" he teased. "I thought you were a little buzzed."

"What are you talking about?" She pushed the phone away from her mouth when she balked at the smell of Emery's vomit. She couldn't stay in the room any longer so she climbed over a snoring Oliver and went to sit in the bathroom, stepping over one of Tobias' sleeping workmates on the small landing.

"I rang you last night? Well about three a.m. really. You said you were buzzed and offered me phone sex."

"I – what?" She lowered herself on the floor of the bathroom, not trusting the suspicious looking wet marks on the toilet seat. "_OH MY GOD!_"

Scorpius roared with laughter down the other end of the phone, causing her to push it away from her again. "Can you really not remember?" he asked after he laughed for a minute.

"It's not that funny."

"It is, baby," Scorpius spoke lowly. "Look, I just rang to say if you're not in school any more why don't we make a day of it? Meet me at David's at twelve and we'll get lunch somewhere –"

"Don't mention food to me right now please," Lily groaned, pressing a hand over her mouth.

Scorpius laughed again. "I'll ring you later tonight baby when you've recovered a little bit." He laughed down the phone. "Oh and baby? Your voice has that affect on me right now."

Lily giggled a little bit when one memory of their phone call came back to her. She bit her lip nervously. "Yeah? Well maybe we can do something about that tomorrow," she whispered as huskily as her voice could be when she was this hung-over.

She felt a satisfied smirk form on her face when she heard his groan from down the phone. "I'll leave you with that thought baby." She hung up the phone and grinned to herself.

Lily barely had time to congratulate herself on being able to flirt so well while she was as hung-over as she was when the bathroom door burst open and Megan came rushing in, dressed only in her underwear and bolted for the toilet. Her cousin didn't seem to mind having an audience; or the suspicious looking wet stains when she got to her knees and put her hands on either side of the rim and threw up.

"There, there Meg. There, there," Lily soothed, rubbing circles on her back.

* * *

_Author's Note: Apologies for the lateness of this update. Both of us have been busy with university and exams and coursework and things of that sort. But now it's starting to slow down and move into summer so hopefully the updates will be coming faster._

_As always if you're not already, go and check out the co-writer of this story - misspotter94. Yes she likes to put her characters into excessive amounts of turmoil and trauma but it's worth it. She's fantastic!_

_Talk to you next time! xo_


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